Thought I’d start off my weekly thing here by talking about my favourite series. That would be none other than Lucky☆Star (らき☆すた).

I would describe it as a slice-of-life comedy, which started as a four panel comic by Kagami Yoshimizu, also credited for creating Comptiq’s mascot ‘Comp-chan’. It has been serialised in Comptiq since 2004 and is still ongoing, as well as cameo strips appearing in other magazines such as Shonen Ace.

Now, I can’t really talk much about the serialisation because I’ve never once read it. My Japanese skills are limited at best, so there’d be no point in me buying Comptiq for it, let alone the costs of getting it shipped from the Land of the Rising Sun to Bonnie Scotland. I can, however, talk of the anime, the manga collection, and the associated merchandise.

The cover for the first manga, showing Konata (left), Tsukasa (right, top), and Kagami (right, bottom)

The anime was done by Kyoto Animation, also known for The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, K-On! and Nichijou. At first, it seems to be a random collection of events in these four girls’ lives, before you realise that yes, that is exactly what it is. The first episode opens with the girls talking about how to eat a choco cornet (a pastry with a filling, usually custard or the like). Do you rip off the tail and dip it into the head? For that matter, what side is the head? It’s a shell! No, it’s a caterpillar. You know, the important things. Incidentally, here is a recipe for them (which you then fill). They’re absolutely delicious.

If you eat it this way, the chocolate falls out the end

Most of the anime is made up of scenes like this one, which I use as an example because it’s one of the earliest, and by far the most memorable. Actually, so is the manga (which is, really, a collection of the comic strips). Each scene has little to do with any previous scenes, meaning plotlines are thin at best, although occasionally you’ll find scenes directly referencing one another. Which is in no way a bad thing, of course. It can be quite refreshing to intersperse episodes of a heavier going series with one or two of Lucky Star. Not only does it keep everything nice and fresh, everyone needs a good belly laugh now and again, and Raki Suta definitely delivers.

On that note, the manga is equally good at relaxing you. Since it’s a collection of the four panel comic strips, you can quite easily read just one at a time, although there’s definitely the urge (which eventually forms into a need) to read more. As it says on the back of the first volume, “When you want to relax, or feel lethargic, or spend your time leisurely, is especially when we recommend this.” The folks at Bandai do not lie.

The merchandise options for Lucky Star are much the same as with anything. Figurines (the ones by FREEing, in this case, are brilliant), posters, special booklets, one-off offers. You can find them everywhere. I managed to find some chibi figurines in a random shop in Blackpool, England, which was a very welcome surprise. Snapped them up, they were only £15. Your best bet, of course, would be the internet. As always, eBay proves the most useful for posters and such, Amazon for DVDs/BluRay, and random other places (such as JBox) for everything else.